----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Text::Merge Version 0.33 last revised: December 13th, 2000 Copyright (c) 1997-2000 by Steven D. Harris. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS -------- This package contains the following files which should share the same version number: Text/Merge.pm - basic text/data merge package Text/Merge/Lists.pm - extension to support display of list references There are HTML formatted manuals in the docs/ directory of the archive if you want to extract just those to read them. DESCRIPTION ----------- The Text::Merge module provides a set of methods for merging text display templates with data sets. It is extended to include support for list of items of various types, displayed individually in context. The interface is designed to be as easy to use as possible while providing extensibility into various contexts and applications on a sophisticated level. You can begin by using the basic template markup and work your way to conditionals. Programmers can master the template processing methods in minutes. This set of functions has been very useful to me in scores of various contexts in my CGI programs and installers. I am publishing them in the hope that they may benefit others as well, and in the hopes that I can get enough feedback to continue to improve them. PREREQUISITES ------------- Before you can build the Text::Merge:: packages you need to have the following installed on your system: * Perl 5.005 or better BUILDING AND INSTALLING THE MODULES ----------------------------------- Assuming you have met all the prerequisites, building the modules should be relatively straightforward. The modules can now be built and installed using this sequence of commands: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL DEVELOPMENT NOTE ======================== This module is now considered sufficiently stable to move beyond the prototype stage. Significant effort is now being put into moving to a parsed (and cached) template model designed for higher efficiency and multiple template publishing. Analysis shows potential improvements in speed directly proportional to the amount of data processed in some cases. We will ideally be moving from the REGEX processing now in use to a parsed template model supported nested constructs, evaluated from the inside out. All releases under the above model will bear version 1.x. This will still allow maintenance releases to the current BETA version. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you would like to assist in development of this module or wish to contact the author, the e-mail is . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --SDH